PokerTek Poker Pro tables: The inside scoop WHY

[Rick Nebiolo]

[ QUOTE ]
My friend tells me although investment in these machines appears to be fiscally sound, he expects most larger casinos to slowly test the waters ala Hollywood Park - and they may not like the results.

[/ QUOTE ]

One problem is that there may be an inherent lack of compatibility between the goals of the ePoker people (which is to get people to use their product) and the goals of most people who work at casinos and card clubs (which in part is to keep their jobs well out into the future). The view inside the cardroom (in this case Hollywood Park where I know about half the staff) was that ePoker and eTables (if it succeeds) clearly threatens existing jobs (and the jobs it may create seem distant and unreachable to these casino workers). So at a not so subtle level you have a tendency for casino workers to sabotage the eTable section within their card club or casino.

To avoid this sabotage the ePoker people may need to run the whole show rather then depend on a partnership (except for the rental of space in a licensed casino or card room). Unfortunately, my experience is that the ePoker people have very little understanding of cardroom operations. The solution for such a venture could be for an ePoker company (and my understanding is that there are more than one) to find people who understand online poker, cardroom poker and procedures, along with something about electronics and computers. That's a hard mix but I can think of a few that qualify (as long as they aren't looking for sycophants [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]).


[ QUOTE ]
A wise investment strategy would be to rent the machines on an as-needed basis for larger casinos such as Bellagio, Wynn, etc if that is possible (I don't know yet), thats the sure way to test the waters by only using them during major tournaments for satelites.

[/ QUOTE ]

This idea a winner for the following reasons (and perhaps more I haven't thought of):

- most big casinos holding big tournaments have space for the etables (in a ballroom/convention area)

- eTables probably would be accepted by the more experienced players at big tournaments

- big tournaments already have staffing problems; use of eTables won't threaten existing staff (as much) so they won't work against the success of the ePoker section.

- they would get heavy usage justifying the cost

Perhaps more later but I gotta run [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img].

~ Rick